View from the Wing Archives.
DOT is proposing to weaken airfare advertising rules by allowing taxes, fees, and fare components to appear as prominently as the total price, instead of requiring the all-in fare to stand out most. The agency is also asking whether it should repeal the full fare rule entirely, a change airlines have long wanted but one that could make airfare shopping more confusing for consumers.
Hyatt just won a major appeals court fight over how its loyalty program is taxed, a ruling that could ultimately save the company $589 million, just as World of Hyatt members are about to pay more for free nights. The program is also getting a major economic boost from the new Chase deal.
The proposed Spirit rescue is no longer just about one failing airline. Budget carriers are now pitching a $2.5 billion taxpayer relief program that could leave the government owning stakes across the low-cost sector, turning a dubious bailout into a much bigger attempt to socialize losses across an industry that has not solved its underlying problems.
Airlines and their payment-clearing partner quietly sold searchable travel and payment data to federal agencies including the IRS and FBI, giving the government a back door into records it would normally need legal process to obtain. Now a proposed class action argues that violated financial privacy laws.
President Trump says ICE can fix shutdown-driven TSA lines starting Monday by moving agents into airports, but federal law does not allow ICE to simply take over checkpoint screening. Even if he tried, pulling immigration agents into TSA roles would weaken airport security while doing little to solve the staffing and training problem that caused the lines in the first place.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Here’s a CEO who spent 1.83 million American Express Membership Rewards points to cover a surprise tariff bill at the guitar pedal manufactuing company he runs in Oklahoma Cty.
McKinney National Airport is still just a general aviation airport in Collin County, Texas, that is being positioned as a potential third commercial airport in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. McKinney leaders are working to develop ‘TKI’ into a regional alternative to DFW and Love Field.
You can only buy tickets in-person at limited hours, but you can’t buy tickets during those hours. That means there’s no real option to buy them in person, which means that booking online isn’t a choice customers are making, and therefore the web booking fee is not optional. Yet Frontier still excludes these charges from their domestic airfare excise tax calculation.
There’s a lot more that goes into points transfers than just entering your name and account number and hitting submit. You were expecting an instant transfer from your transferable points program, why did the points not show up right away?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
